Milling machines such as cold planers or soil recyclers may be configured to remove, mix, or reclaim material from the surface of bituminous, concrete, dirt or asphalt roadways and other surfaces using a rotatable tool mounted on a frame. The rotatable tool may be a planing drum that grinds an existing roadway material or a similar tool such as a soil recycling drum. In either case, the rotating tool is mounted on a frame of the machine and is vertically adjustable to control a depth of cut into the ground or other surface on which the machine is operating. Depending on the type of machine, the frame may travel along the working surface using ground engaging members such as wheels, tracks and the like.
In a customary arrangement, the rotating tool is enclosed within a housing, which is open on its bottom to allow the rotating tool to contact the ground and which encloses the rotating tool on all remaining sides to both contain the milled material for collection and/or mixing and to avoid debris from being ejected from the tool during operation. Moreover, a machine operator is usually positioned either above or in front of the tool housing in typical machine configurations. The operator position, along with the enclosure of the tool, often make it difficult for the operator to know exactly where a cut will be made on the ground, especially in situations where the machine requires a change in direction during a cut.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,977,442, which issued on Oct. 3, 2015, describes a system that determines a trajectory of a machine as a function of the position of the front and rear running gear and also as a function of steering angle and mode of steering. The system described in this reference further displays an image to the operator of the view from the rear of the machine, with the calculated trajectory superimposed, to aid in maneuvering of the machine. However, these representations do not provide visual information relative to the cutting tool of the machine to the operator.